Samuelle sits for his final portrait waving to the light, or me...or......
Post Script 5/6/14: We got some of the lab work back. It is definitive that Samulel was suffering from cancer, and it is helpful to know this. We could not have done better for him and his suffering is over.
Samuelle flew off, with our help around ten this morning. I am so relieved for him. Before I took him to the vet for his final leap, I brought him to the light of the windows so he could possibly see Earth one more time, or something that might look familiar. He spent the night in a crate next to me for safety, and it was a hard night. While he probably wasn't seeing well in the end, I do think there were certain sensations-such as bright light- that he could respond too. I sat him in a familiar chair so he could look out a window, and took his final portrait.
He raised his head and paws up, and moved his paw in waving fashion. As a writer, and one with a vivid story telling imagination, it is tempting to believe he was waving goodbye to the light, or me. But I guess I could then be accused of...Disneyizing my life. The scientists in the mix or pragmatists will say he was responding to stimuli.
Well, I was there, and I felt it was both. I took him out and put his face in some leaves, and then off we went to the vet.
What a fighter, but he was ready for this journey, as were we. After he was gone, my vet and I examined his interior mouth and throat again. The roof of his mouth had become more swollen, and the lower throat was hard instead of soft. We really feel like there was most likely a growth of some kind pressing down on his nasals and entire left side. The lab tests might tell us more clues, but for now, there is no definitive answer, except that he was fine cat who lived many years longer because he happened to walk onto Apifera instead of another surrounding property that might not have had the means to help him.
Did he come here because he had heard the stories of this place, or did I somehow invite him without knowing, without words-just as I have always invited many creatures here before I have laid eyes on them. Some of you might now be saying - now that is really story telling, but I know for a fact it has happened many times.
Goodbye Samuelle Noel! You were the most brave soldier. May you take off your boots now and lay in the sun, the same sun that will shine down into my studio where we so often spent the day together.
